Motorola Continues Google Android Momentum With Backflip: CES

Motorola this week got in on the CES smartphone explosion with the unveiling of its latest Google Android handheld, the Motorola Backflip.

The Motorola Backflip is expected to hit stores sometime this quarter in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. So far, specific carriers for the device have not been revealed.

The Backflip is a quad-band GSM handheld that supports 850/1900/2100MHz, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Like its counterpart, the Motorola Cliq, the Backflip also uses Motoblur software.

"Since introducing our first Motoblur-based device, we've remained focused on differentiating the Android experience and bringing it to new carrier partners around the globe," Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices, said in a statement. "Backflip maximizes the multitasking and multifunctional potential of Motoblur with its unique design elements, making it as smart as it is social."

Motoblur is Motorola's Android-powered content delivery service that syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and other communications from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, various e-mail accounts and other sources, like LastFM, and automatically delivers them to the home screen.

The Motorola Backflip features a "reverse flip" design, meaning it opens like a book, and packs a 3.1-inch HVGA touch screen. When closed, users can access a full QWERTY keyboard on the back. The Backflip smartphone also adds a trackpad, which Motorola has dubbed Backtrack. The trackpad is on the back of the display of the open phone and lets users navigate the device menus, browse photos, scroll through e-mails and texts and perform other functions without obscuring the home screen.

Additional features include a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 2 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32 GB, and an HTML browser. The Motorola Backflip smartphone is expected to be released with Google Android version 1.5 but can be upgraded to Google Android 2.1 when released. It also offers access to the Android Market and the more than 18,000 applications and widgets.